Artist's impression of the 1st Troop of Horse Guards at the Battle of Dettingen in 1743.
The Life Guards grew from the four troops of Horse Guards (exclusively formed of gentlemen-troopers until the transformation of the last two remaining troops into Regiments of Life Guards in 1788)[1][2] raised by Charles II around the time of his restoration, plus two troops of Horse Grenadier Guards (rank and file composed of commoners),[3] which were raised some years later.[4]
The 3rd and 4th troops were disbanded in 1746.[4] In 1788, the remaining 1st and 2nd troops, along with the two troops of Horse Grenadier Guards, were reorganised into two regiments, the 1st and 2nd Regiments of Life Guards (from 1877, simply 1st Life Guards and 2nd Life Guards).[4] From then on (1788), rank and file were mostly formed of commoners giving rise to their pejorative nickname: "the cheesemongers",[6] while the bulk of the gentlemen-troopers were pensioned off.[7]
From 1812 to 1814, two squadrons from each of the Life Guard regiments served in the Peninsular War.[8] In 1815 they were part of The Household Brigade at the Battle of Waterloo under Major-General Lord Edward Somerset.[5] This would be their last active service for more than 60 years, during which time they performed ceremonial and public order duties in London.[8]
In 1821, the Life Guards under the command of Captain Oakes fired upon mourners trying to redirect the funeral procession of Queen Caroline through the city of London. Two civilians were killed. Though charges of manslaughter and murder were brought, no Life Guards were prosecuted.[9]
In 1918, the two Life Guards regiments gave up their horses and were re-roled as machine gun battalions, becoming the 1st and 2nd Battalions, Guards Machine Gun Regiment. They reverted to their previous names and roles after the end of the war.[5] In 1922, the two regiments were merged into one regiment, The Life Guards (1st and 2nd).[4] In 1928, it was re-designated The Life Guards.[5]
During the Second World War, again forming part of the HCCR, the Life Guards undertook armoured reconnaissance duties in Palestine, Iraq, Iran, Egypt and Italy.[8] In 1944, the Life Guards took part in the Normandy landings and the advance through France to liberate Brussels.[5] In the late 1940s, they were deployed to the Middle East, initially in Egypt, garrisoned at Kasr-el-Nil Barracks in Cairo from 1946 to 1947, and then in Palestine from 1947. In 1948, the unit left the Middle East and returned to England on leave. In 1952, it returned to Germany as part of the 11th Armoured Division.[10]
Throughout the 1950s and 1960s, the unit repeatedly rotated from Britain to Germany. In 1965, the unit was deployed to Asia for the first time in central Malaysia until 1968, returning to England. Like in the past decades, the unit was stationed in West Germany and England through the early to late 1970s. During its deployments, the unit always maintained a squadron in London conducting public duties. In 1971 several squadrons were deployed to Northern Ireland during The Troubles, and the regiment would see action there several more times through the mid-1970s. In March 1979, B Squadron was deployed to Cyprus as part of the United Nations Peacekeeping Force, and this would become another location that components of the unit would be deployed to.[10]
In 1992, as part of the Options for Change defence review, The Life Guards were joined with the Blues and Royals in a 'Union', becoming part of the new Household Cavalry, classified as a corps, not an amalgamation, forming the Household Cavalry Regiment (armoured reconnaissance) and the Household Cavalry Mounted Regiment (ceremonial duties). However, both units maintain their regimental identity, with distinct uniforms and traditions, and their own colonel.[5] Like The Blues and Royals, they have a peculiar non-commissioned rank structure: In brief, they lack sergeants, replacing them with multiple grades of corporal.[13] Since the union, the Household Cavalry Regiment has seen active service in the Balkans, Iraq and Afghanistan.[12]
In 2018, the Life Guards began admitting women.[14] In 2020, Elizabeth Godwin became the first woman to be commissioned as an officer in the Life Guards.[14]
On ceremonial occasions The Life Guards wear a scarlet tunic, a metal cuirass and a matching helmet with a white plume worn bound on the top into an 'onion' shape; the exceptions to this are the regiment's trumpeters, who wear a red plume, and farriers, who wear blue tunics and have a black plume.[15] In addition, The Life Guards wear their chin strap below their lower lip, as opposed to The Blues and Royals who wear it under their chin. On service dress The Life Guards Officers and Warrant Officers Class One wear a red lanyard on the right shoulder, as well as a Sam Browne belt.[16] The Life Guards, as part of the Household Division, does not use the Order of the Bath Star for its officer rank "pips", but rather the Order of the Garter Star.[17]
Battle honours
The battle honours are:[18]
[combined battle honours of 1st Life Guards and 2nd Life Guards, with the following emblazoned]:[ii]
^The current 'Life Guards' were raised in 1922 following reductions to the Cavalry Corps. The regiment's predecessors, the 1st and 2nd Life Guards, have their roots dating back to 1660.
^The regiment maintained the fiction of separate regiments until 1928, receiving in 1927 two separate sets of Standards with different (but almost identical) battle honours emblazoned.
^Revised combined list issued May 1933, omitting from emblazonment "Passchendaele" and "St. Quentin Canal" of the 1st Life Guards.
^ abAwarded jointly to The Life Guards and Blues and Royals, for services of Household Cavalry Regiment.
References
^Magnæ Britanniæ Notitia (1716) p. 115f.: Of the Troops of the Household
^Slang Dictionaries (2014), edited by John Camden Hotten, Francis Grose, Ambrose Bierce
^The statutes at large from the Magna Charta, to the end of the eleventh Parliament of Great Britain, anno 1761 [continued to 1806]. By Danby Pickering (1762); Vol. 36 (London, 1788), p. 362
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